Would more women in MMA cause mainstream shift?

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How do you take MMA - a fringe sport - mainstream?

Jonny Bones Jones, the current UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, is pulling MMA fighters in front of mainstream audiences by appearing with Kirstie Alley and Jay Leno on the Tonight Show.

Much is expected of this new Champion.

According to Thomas Gerbasi on UFC.com: "Not only is it important for him to deliver in the Octagon on fight night, but he is also seen by many to be a crossover star the likes this sport has never seen. He is the youngest champion in UFC history and perhaps the most marketable."

One of UFC President, Dana White's complaints is the lack of depth in the ranks of women with enough MMA fight experience and technical experience to capture the attention of the mixed martial arts fan base.

Go Mainstream By Including Women MMA Fighters

In my opinion, we need some encouragement to draw more women into the sport.

This is no easy feat. Training in mixed martial arts requires a commitment to learning multiple sports - boxing, kickboxing, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and wrestling - individually, and then learning how to thread them together in an actual fight with another person.

The truth is there are so few women practicing the sport that women end up training and sparring with men in most MMA schools. Nothing wrong with that. Guys temper their strength so as not to do bodily harm. When fighting with men, we focus on using technique against technique. We women respect each man's physical strength.

We know they can crush us if they want to.

What I mean by that is: I already know you're stronger than me. Let's match up skill to skill and see what happens - without causing harm.

Please don't read "powder-puff" into that sentence. I deal with my fair share of injuries as a woman practicing the sport of mixed martial arts.

Here's an example of Women's MMA in the mainstream media. I was selected to appear on a show called Second Act produced by Yahoo!

Young People Training in MMA

School age girls and older women (like me) practice MMA because we love it. The young people training in mixed martial arts are the ones who will fill the pipeline of future female fighters.

Yes, the pipeline is narrow. This is a tough sport requiring strong commitment and love for the sport.

Someone needs to hold out the brass ring.

I vote for Dana White and Zuffa (parent company of UFC) to make that happen.

Here are more links to other stories about this issue:

Zuffa Buys Strikeforce list of posts on Women Talk Sports

Cheryl Ragsdale practices martial arts for fun and physical fitness at Florian Martial Arts Center. She was recently promoted to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Blue Belt by Keith Florian and Kenny Florian, both Black Belts. Stand up for yourself and stay young from the inside out. Check out some of my other posts strictly for UFC fans and fighters.

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There are 2 comments on this post. Join the discussion!

MarQFPR says:

For the past two years, women's mma has been the fastest growing sport in the country. The term "amateur female fighter" was not even comprehensible back then. The ammy divisions now are developing at a fast pace, and there is a lot of depth coming in the pro-ranks.

People like Gina Carano and Miesha Tate have been doing their best to make the sport more main stream. Carano will be doing more when her fight approaches in June - more than likely making the talk show circuit to promote it and her upcoming film "Haywire".

Given some time this year, it will become even more main stream. The question is will Scott Coker feature more women's fights on his cards.

Sunday, April 10, 2011 at 5:52am EDT

Cheryl Ragsdale says:

I found an infographic (that I will add to WTS in a blog post later) that proves Gina Carano puts "bums in seats". Two of her fights made the list of Top 10 Most Watched MMA fights. I'm excited to see where Scott Coker and Dana White go with the issue of promoting Women's MMA. Female fighters are the hot potatoes of this merger between Zuffa and Strikeforce. Put your oven gloves on, Scott and handle these fighters with care.

Sunday, April 10, 2011 at 9:07am EDT

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